Latvian drug company Grindeks said the length of treatment for meldonium is typically four to six weeks, not the 10 years Maria Sharapova said she has been prescribed the drug. (Jeff Christensen/The Associated Press)

MOSCOW — Maria Sharapova, the world’s highest-earning female athlete for many years, was abandoned Tuesday by some of her biggest sponsors after the Russian tennis star acknowledged taking a recently banned substance for a decade.

Sportswear giant Nike, Swiss watch brand Tag Heuer and German luxury car company Porsche quickly distanced themselves from the five-time Grand Slam winner, who announced on Monday that she tested positive for meldonium at the Australian Open in January, days after the drug was banned.

The former world No. 1 took full responsibility for her mistake and could face a lengthy ban from the International Tennis Federation, possibly ending her season and preventing her from competing for Russia at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“I know that with this, I face consequences,” Sharapova, 28, said Monday. “I don’t want to end my career this way, and I really hope I will be given another chance to play this game.”

“We are saddened and surprised by the news about Maria Sharapova,” Nike responded in a statement. “We have decided to suspend our relationship with Maria while the investigation continues. We will continue to monitor the situation.”

TAG Heuer, which had been discussing a new deal with Sharapova after its sponsorship expired at the end of 2015, said it has decided not to renew the contract “in view of the current situation.”

Porsche said it has “chosen to postpone planned activities” with Sharapova “until further details are released and we can analyze the situation.” Water company Evian said it “will follow closely the development of the investigation.”

Shock in ad world

Veterans of sports advertising were surprised Tuesday by how quickly these and other sponsors sought to distance themselves from such a bankable performer.

For the last 11 years, Sharapova has led the Forbes Magazine list of highest-paid female athletes, earning an estimated $29.5 million last year alone.

“She’s a one-woman marketing machine,” said Nigel Currie, an independent British-based sponsorship consultant. “There are lots of male stars in the world, but not many female stars.”

Currie said it’s “unbelievable” how such a mistake could have happened since Sharapova has such a big support network. It’s also “amazing” how quickly sponsors react, he said.

“They are paranoid about their image, and the slightest risk to their image, they run to the hills.”

Born in Siberia, Sharapova was just 5 when she was discovered by Martina Navratilova. She and her father had just $700 on hand when they moved to Florida to train her for tennis stardom. The lanky blonde won Wimbledon, her first Grand Slam title, at 17, and the endorsements came rolling in.

Sharapova now has 35 career singles titles and more than $36 million in career prize winnings. But her endorsement deals and extensive business ventures, including a high-profile candy line, Sugarpova, dwarf what she earns on the court.

The World Anti-Doping Agency banned meldonium starting this year because it aids oxygen uptake and endurance. All players were notified by email of the changes in the WADA banned substances list in December.

Sharapova, who said she has taken meldonium for 10 years for numerous health issues, claimed she neglected to click on a link to the new list and simply missed the change. Several other athletes across international sports also have been caught using it since then.

“I take great responsibility and professionalism in my job, and I made a huge mistake,” Sharapova said. “I let my fans down. I let the sport down that I’ve been playing since the age of 4, that I love so deeply.”

What is meldonium?

The drug, also known as mildronate, was regularly given to Soviet troops in the 1980s to boost their stamina while fighting in Afghanistan.

Sharapova’s lawyer, John J. Haggerty, declined to go into specifics Tuesday but said during a conference call he wanted “to disabuse the concept that Maria took mildronate every day for 10 years because that’s simply not the case.”

Grindeks, the Latvian company that manufactures meldonium, said in an emailed statement Tuesday to The Associated Press: “Depending on the patient’s health condition, treatment course of meldonium preparations may vary from four to six weeks. Treatment course can be repeated twice or thrice a year. Only physicians can follow and evaluate patient’s health condition and state whether the patient should use meldonium for a longer period of time.”

Haggerty said “Maria at all times took the mildronate in accordance with the recommendations of her doctor.”

Meldonium is a heart medicine that improves blood flow and is little-known in the U.S., but it was once common in the Soviet military.

The drug’s inventor, Ivars Kalvins, told Latvian newspaper Diena in a 2009 interview that meldonium was given to soldiers during the 1980s, when Soviet forces were fighting in Afghanistan.

“High altitudes. Oxygen deprivation. If they have to run 20 kilometers with all the gear, at the end they would get ischemia (a blood circulation condition),” Kalvins was quoted as saying.

“They were all given meldonium. They themselves were not aware they were using it. No one was being asked (if they agree to it) back then.”

Is meldonium a PED?

Kalvins said meldonium was “not doping,” adding that it “allows you to withstand more physical pressure, but the body still spends its spare reserves.”

Sharapova said Monday she had taken meldonium for a decade following various health problems including regular sicknesses, early signs of diabetes and “irregular” results from echocardiography exams.

“I was first given the substance back in 2006. I had several health issues going on at the time,” she said.

Meldonium was banned because it aids oxygen uptake and endurance, and several athletes in various international sports have already been caught using it since it was banned Jan. 1.

The wave of meldonium cases has echoes of a doping scandal involving another Soviet military drug, bromantan, which was banned after being found in Russian athletes’ samples at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

While Grindeks has previously stated that meldonium can provide an “improvement of work capacity of healthy people at physical and mental overloads and during rehabilitation period,” the Latvian company said Tuesday that it believed the substance would not enhance athletes’ performance in competition and might even do the opposite.

“It would be reasonable to recommend them to use meldonium as a cell protector to avoid heart failure or muscle damage in case of unwanted overload,” the company said.

Grindeks said that, in sports activity, the drug slows down how the body breaks down fatty acids to produce energy.

Grindeks did not comment when asked whether someone with the symptoms Sharapova described would be a suitable patient for meldonium. The company said it was designed for patients with chronic heart and circulation conditions, those recovering from illness or injury and people suffering with “reduced working capacity, physical and psycho-emotional overload.”

Haggerty said “the dosage that Maria was taking was substantially less than any dosage that has been linked to potential performance-enhancing attributes.”

Meldonium is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Banning and testing

While meldonium was put on banned list as of Jan. 1, the decision to ban it had been announced by WADA and sports organizations as early as September. Sharapova said she received an email with information on the changes in December, but did not read the information at the time.

The AP was able to buy vials and tablets of meldonium over the counter in Moscow on Tuesday. Accompanying documentation stated that side effects could include blood pressure changes, irregular heartbeat and skin conditions.

German anti-doping expert Mario Thevis, who helped to develop the test for meldonium, told the AP that testing was reliable despite meldonium’s recent addition to the WADA banned list.

“There is a potential of the substance to enhance performance and it has been described as a means to facilitate recovery and to enhance physical as well as mental workload capabilities,” Thevis, a professor at the anti-doping laboratory in Cologne, Germany, said by phone. “It can be tested as reliably as any other doping agent.”

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